Diamonds in My Garden

Let me paint you a picture. It is an Oregon countryside on the foothills of Mt. Hood. In the early spring flower blossoms form and slowly turn to fruit.Everyone is eager for spring to begin after the cold winter storms. Suddenly we see a soft greening of leaves across the woods. The mist is thin and a few low clouds linger on the horizon. Then as the months pass our garden blossoms and bears beautiful flowers and fruit. As fall arrives and lingers we are thankfull for the bounty. Mornings bring freezing temperatures before dawn.

I was a young mom living in the country with two children and my husband. The country life was a dream in many ways. You could take walks on the land and pick up leaves and flowers to press and save. Then if you wanted you could even transplant small fir trees onto your acreage and watch the changes and growth over the years. Harvest time was always great with fresh ears of corn and vine ripened tomatoes. I loved picking my own raspberries from a row I planted which over the years grew stringers and roots giving us several rows of raspberries to enjoy. Strawberries tasted the sweetest and best in the world! I usually made both strawberry and blackberry jam.

One day while walking in my garden I noticed the beautiful blueberry plants. The sunlight was just rising on the horizon and the ground cover was blue and dusted with frost everywhere. It was fall now and the little plants were still beautiful in their colors of red and golden leaves. Blueberry plants are a wonderful landscape plant . They produce at various times of the summer. I had planted three plants. They provided us with fresh fruit at mid and late summer. I had selected an early, mid season and late producing variety.

Over 20 years these three plants survived bravely on their own despite my pruning which wasn't advised, and an array of blizzards, heat waves, snow drifts and endless rain and winds which all occurred over the years. Those little plants had been ordered as starter plants only about 12 inches high at first. By the time we moved off of the land the plants had grown to be about 6 feet high and about 6 to 7 feet in circular diameter. They produced more blueberries than anyone really wanted to pick. The taste was slightly different from each of the three varieties with my favorite being the late season berry. They were magnificent plants and probably my very favorite over the years.

Oregon was a wonderful place to enjoy fresh fruit. The fields of strawberries and raspberries were everywhere in the 60s and 70s. Over the years, the area I spent most of my teen years had changed to rows of housing developments and more commerce than anyone ever imagined had arrived bringing traffic and pollution to the Gresham area. I hardly recognize it now when I return to visit. The rush of traffic and small shopping malls have completely destroyed that precious countryside view of berry fields, farms, and Mt.Hood in the background. We always said it was a clear day when you could see the mountain which is frequently covered by cloud cover being in the Pacific Northwest. I don't miss the rains that we endured while living there but sure enough I miss the green everywhere.

To finish my diamond story. It simply is this. I remember vividly the mornings when I would pass my blueberry plants on the way to taking my kids to school or work in the fall and winter months.There shimmering in the light frost of the early morning sunlight were lovely shining diamonds of frost on each plant. There were my diamonds brilliant and glistening. I have always held that picture in my mind to remember the value and beauty of living in the countryside in the great Pacific Northwest!